XBX1 XBOX ONE News (Articles, Accessories and Everything Else)

[Mingo]

The sad thing is we didn't have a difference of opinion, your just too ****in dumb to see it.
I was arguing the point that MS were arrogant and ignorant in there comments and actions to there "important customers".

Heh, ironic. You're and their.

 

[vWestCoast]

Any chance we could maybe actually discuss the Xbox One? Take your shit elsewhere. I personally will probably get both, Xbox for more of a entertainment system with the easy of internet, tv, movies ect and also the good exclusives PS4 will be used more so for games obviously

 

[E92_]

You'll be able to upload your zoo to the cloud, share it with friends and work on it alongside up to three other players, Neumann revealed. "Collaboration is a key part of this new Zoo Tycoon and we believe it will open up the experience on a truly global scale." You can also communicate with other Tycoons directly via Skype, loan and trade animals and "engage in large scale community-wide conservation efforts".


As you'd expect from a game by Frontier, creator of Kinectimals, the game also supports Kinect - animals will recognise you and respond to voice commands and gestures, such as screams of "DANCE MONKEY BOY, DANCE" accompanied by vigorous fist-shaking. Care of "charming enrichment interactions" you can "access menus and infographics in the most intuitive way possible". It is impossible to be cynical about any of this.

You'll be able to explore the zoo on foot, too, interacting with guests (who will signal their needs and feelings via animations) and performing mini-games such as litter-picking, cleaning out the animal exhibits and delivering food stock. If walking's too much trouble, there's a buggy which "handles really well" and is a "fun addition to the game". You can even view the zoo through animal eyes and experience the thrill of imprisonment for yourself.

Besides letting people confuse and upset virtual animals, Microsoft wants to help non-virtual ones by raising awareness of endangered species. "There will be a great deal of focus on captive breeding and saving/rehabilitating and releasing animals back into the wild once they're ready," observed Neumann. "Once released into the wild, the player can keep tabs on each animal to see how they're progressing and adapting to their new home."

The developer will also update the game "based on real world events", having partnered with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to this end, and Microsoft says it'll donate resources to animal charities when certain community objectives are reached.

"We feel a great sense of responsibility to the fans and are incorporating the excellent feedback and suggestions we've received from them over the years," Neumann observed. "By bringing the franchise to the Xbox consoles, we are able to add awesome new gameplay experiences and groundbreaking social dimensions that will make this the best "Zoo Tycoon" experience ever."

http://www.oxm.co.uk/58259/xbox-exc...cloud-based-multiplayer-loads-of-new-details/


Good thing that they're doing with the bolded.

 

[E92_]

A reddit user who has apparently confirmed (with mods) he's an X1 dev has started a thread where you can ask him questions:

Obvious throwaway account. I won't be providing any proof or confirming/disproving rumors or anything that may give my identity away. Which is why I'm doing this in this subreddit. Believe what you will on what I say.

As an Xbox One OS dev, my brethens and I live and breath this stuff. We're salaried but anyone putting in 60hrs/week is nothing to brag about. Pull an all nighter from time to time, we feel good and give each other high fives. We take pride in our work and still have high hopes for what's yet to come. That being said, it's not like we don't read around the internet on what everyone is saying about the Xbox One, our policies, and our company. We do take the time to think about our policies, re-evaluate, and re-confirm that we're making logical and well thought out decisions. Honestly, a lot of us don't care about the bickering that's going on everywhere and all the time about which console is better. Personally, I just care about delivering the Xbox One with a quality bar that gamers deserve, that we deserve, because we're going to be playing this console too. I'm going to be putting one in my living room and enjoy the hell out of what this amazing piece of tech has to offer.

I'm doing this AMA because when I joined this subreddit, it was to see what reasons do people who agree with our vision give to support their choice. What games are people excited about? What innovative ways can people come up with to use the Kinect that we haven't thought of? Of course, to see people cheer for the product that I live my life in. More often than not, what I see are people who don't support the Xbox One spreading false information, albeit unintentionally. People talking like they're an expert on this stuff and but having not a single clue. This leads to the Xbox One fans frantically defending Microsoft and/or its policies, sometimes with more false information due to the mess of a job we did at revealing the console. Some of the reasons people voice against the Xbox One, I really don't understand. Maybe it's because I work so closely to the console, I know exactly how it works and why certain things are simply ridiculous. I don't know.

So ask me almost anything. If I don't reply, it most likely means to fully answer you I'll have to break NDA.
Edit: Exchanged proof to mods for custom flair.

Edit: As some one pointed out to me I should be more clear about my intent for being here. There's no way I can answer some of these questions without someone else on the team reading it and saying, "I know exactly who this guy is." All I can offer is insight on our culture, the way we think, and what why we implemented some of our policies.




failure rate/possible family sharing return:


1) Can't comment on this as it's not my area of expertise. But if you compare the failure rates of the launch 360 with the current 360 S. It should give you an idea.
2) I believe Marc Whitten answers this in the IGN interview he gave. I sure hope we bring it back.


Reaction to DRM reversal:


Personally I was a little surprised at timeframe which we decided on the DRM reversal. I thought we didn't push on its benefits enough.
The petition shows there are lots of people who want these benefits as much as I do and clearly our execs care or Marc Whitten wouldn't have referred to it in his IGN interview.


On the upgraded clock speed rumour:


Can't comment on the rumor.
The facts are on paper, the PS4 has better specs and the most you can debate is by how much. What I can tell you is I have played Forza, Killer instinct, and Ryse on the Xbox One. They look as good as the games I play on a high end PC. Ryse reminded me of darksiders II.


How loud the console is:


Almost inaudible. I run three at a time and they are drowned out by the fans in the desktops.


Snap feature:


Snapping is only available to certain apps such as IE, Skype, the game DVR upload tool, etc. Game titles cannot be snapped. I have not tried TV input but I did hook up a PC to the Xbox and watched netflix while I skyped someone. Netflix on the PC with skype(X1) snapped.

Yes, AAA titles cannot be snapped (shown in smaller view). IE can however be snapped to look up how to perform a combination while you play .


Kinect/TrackIR


Looked up TrackIR briefly and it seems to be using an IR receiver and transmitter mounted on a headset.
The Kinect is capable of face tracking as shown in the Kinect demos we did for our internet media outlets. In addition to face tracking, we can determine the rotational position of your head so I have no doubt those features can be implemented.

The goal with having a Kinect ship with every Xbox is to guarantee to game developers if they implement Kinect features into their games, everyone who has an Xbox will be able to experience it. I often see people dismiss the Kinect instantly because they haven't seen it work like I have. It is an integral part of the Xbox One experience.

The number of features on the Xbox One that uses the Kinect is almost too many to count. I can't imagine using the console without it. To me, I see two ways to deal with this.
1) Not require the Kinect to be always plugged in and have all these features turned off by default.
2) Enable these features by default and turn them off if people choose to turn off the Kinect.
The first choice would undermine our guarantee to game developers.

The majority of the masses care only about the console, except that the success of the Kinect carries much more weight to us. The sensor costs almost as much as the console to make.


E3:


It was quite moot. One of our execs had mentioned a Sony dev came up to him and told him you won the games, we won the gamers.

Marc Whitten once told me that At E3, he fully knew Sony kicked our butts and wasn't sure how to deal with people on the demo floor. What he saw repeatedly was after people sat down and played with the Xbox One, the Kinect, the voice controls, the hand gestures, the UI, they had sparks in their eyes. This why we still believe we have the better product.

Rumoured yield issues:


Don't know, no official word within the company. A lot of this information, we don't hear about it until they are announced to the public.


Family sharing:


It was for full games. Can't comment too much on this but its purpose was to eliminate the need to ever have to physically hand someone a game that you bought to share with them.


Atmosphere at MS:


The team is huge, almost 1000 people. Most people in Microsoft have their own offices, it's the way Microsoft have been since it started. For the Xbox team however, we have mostly large open spaces (thank Bungie for that), with the most senior people having their own offices. The average time employed at Microsoft to get your own office in the Xbox team is about 10 years. The division provides us free of charge a 24hour snack bar, dinner every day, and breakfast and lunch on the weekends if we choose to come in. In addition to that the team provides additional sustenance and booze whenever we all get together and show off what we did in the past couple weeks. There's no way I can throw in 60hours/week for the long term if the environment was overly stressful.
Almost every subgroup within the team works on something that is related to the Kinect in some way. I personally come in contact with 4 or 5 different subgroups in a day.

http://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/comments/1i71s5/i_am_an_xbox_one_dev_ask_me_almost_anything/


Not huge revelations but it's a bit interesting, was surprised for him to say the Kinect sensor costs almost as much as the console to make.

 

[E92_]

 

[grrofunger]

There's no way I can answer some of these questions without someone else on the team reading it and saying, "I know exactly who this guy is."

Marc Whitten once told me that At E3...........


yeah ok

 

[boydsno1]

Mark whiten would speak to a lot of people at E3 and I'm sure there will be plenty of Xbox reps at E3 also.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Has anyone said why RARE aren't developing Killer Instinct?

Is it just because they are shit now?

 

[HBK619]

Has anyone said why RARE aren't developing Killer Instinct?

Is it just because they are shit now?

Because they're a Kinect focused dev now, currently working on Kinect Sports Rivals.

 

[E92_]

Has anyone said why RARE aren't developing Killer Instinct?

Is it just because they are shit now?

Not sure, iirc Rare are making that Kinect sports game and are rumoured to have another game in the works.





Some new KI videos:

 

[doggies ftw]

Good work MS, using one of the best developers ever to make Kinect Sports

 

[The Big Sauce]

Because they're a Kinect focused dev now, currently working on Kinect Sports Rivals.

This makes 10 yo me cry inside.

 

[beta_condition]

This makes 10 yo me cry inside.

Memories, Like the corners of my mind, Misty water-colored memories, Of the way they were.

 

[kangle4]

Because they're a Kinect focused dev now, currently working on Kinect Sports Rivals.

How the mighty have fallen.

 

[The Speaker]

This makes 10 yo me cry inside.

Tell ten year old you that this is Rareware in name only.

 

[Liam Boy]

This makes 10 yo me cry inside.

Retro Studios seem to have filled their shoes pretty well, on the Nintendo side of things. Company was founded by former Rare devs.

 

[Mingo]

Those of us that have much better memories than I do how long after launch does it usually take before we see price drops?

 

[beta_condition]

Those of us that have much better memories than I do how long after launch does it usually take before we see price drops?

If the system is doing overly poorly could see one in 6 months, but you would normally expect a price drop after the first year.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Retro Studios seem to have filled their shoes pretty well, on the Nintendo side of things. Company was founded by former Rare devs.

Actually I was just thinking that today.

Retro are actually my favourite Nintendo Developer now. They are just so solid in everything they put out.

Would love if Nintendo gave them a shot at creating their own IP (kind of goes against the 'Retro' name though).

Tell ten year old you that this is Rareware in name only.

It's still such a shame to see.

Probably the most disappointing acquisition I can think of.

 

[The Speaker]

It's still such a shame to see.

Probably the mos disappointing acquisition I can think of.

Also the one of the worst.

 

[The Big Sauce]

Also the one of the worst.

Yeah that too.

Microsoft paid between $300-400 million for them.

What have they gotten.

Xbox
Grabbed By Ghoulies
Conker's Bad Fur Day

360
Kameo
Perfect Dark Zero
Banjo Nuts & Bolts
Viva Pinata
Viva Pnata 2

XBLA
The 360 Avatar System
Banjo Kazooie
Banjo Tooie
Perfect Dark

Some Kinect games I have no idea their names.

Best original game out of that lot was probably Nuts & Bolts which was decent enough.

Such an uninspiring line up though.

 

[beta_condition]

Viva Pinata was probably the best game they've been involved with since leaving Nintendo

 

[The Big Sauce]

Viva Pinata was probably the best game they've been involved with since leaving Nintendo

Completely agree with that. Forgot about it completely, but it was a pretty solid game circa 2007 when I got my 360.

 

[Frank Grimes]

lol

http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-breakup-letter-to-xbox/

 

[nameless]

With the demographics Rare's games have gone recently it makes sense they'd focus on Kinect.

Also with MS having such a huge focus on Kinect, I think they're happy to have a big name dev behind some of the games - even if they're a shadow of their former selves, they can still have a bit of pull.

KI looks insane!!

With the new d-pad I think fighting games will work a lot better on X1.